


Trust

by vass



Category: Original Work
Genre: Betrayal, F/F, Fealty, Non-Graphic Violence, Rivals Forced To Work Together, UST, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:07:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29265504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vass/pseuds/vass
Summary: "I never agreed to trust you, only to travel with you to the Rosestone Fortress and confront your late companion there."
Relationships: Female Knight on Noble Quest/Witch Who's Far Too Distracting (Original Work), Sword Lesbian/Sword Lesbian (Original Work)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	Trust

**Author's Note:**

  * For [iwillalwaysknowyou](https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwillalwaysknowyou/gifts).



> You asked for "Sword Lesbian/Sword Lesbian" and "Female Knight on Noble Quest/Witch Who's Far Too Distracting". How about... they're both?  
> For clarity: Karal is a he/him lesbian.

"I must say," said Esmerelda, leaning in toward Val, "I am surprised that you would trust me so quickly." As she leaned, her dark hair trailed over Val's highly polished pauldron. Val almost imagined she could feel the hair kiss the iron. She could definitely smell the oil Esmerelda combed into it.  
"I don't trust you at all," Val said, truthfully. She didn't trust anyone who could wear her hair unbound over maille and not get it tangled in the rings immediately. No matter that Esmerelda was wearing a cape. A long, green cape trimmed with black fur, and how did she keep it so free of dust on the road? Clearly she had not abandoned her dark sorcery as she claimed.  
"But-"  
"I never agreed to trust you, only to travel with you to the Rosestone Fortress and confront your late companion there."  
"My dear Val, surely you cannot deny that this entails a measure of trust. I could run you through in your sleep." She gestured to her long, slender blade. It was a showy gesture, and her weapon was a showy sword, and Val distrusted both of them. Simply watching the motion of Esmerelda's hand made her feel as though she was on uncertain ground, and could fall at any moment.

"That is only a limited sort of trust," Val said shortly, looking away.  
"All trust is limited," Esmerelda said, and there was something darkly rueful in her tone.

*

Yselda, the self-dubbed Vampire Queen of Rosestone, looked painfully like Val's liege lord, Karal. Her face was a bloodless white copy of his high cheekbones and winged brows. A strange mirror image, she and Esmerelda made of Karal and Val herself. Val had never understood why Esmerelda would squire for a sorceress who had never even been a knight.

"My lady, at your demand I have brought you Sir Val," Esmerelda said, lowering herself gracefully to the ground.  
Before Val could begin to protest, Yselda laughed coldly. "You dissemble poorly, Lady Esmerelda," she said. "We have not met in this life."  
Esmerelda's gloved grip on Val's vambrace changed from sorcerous restraint to radiating distressed heat. "It is true, then," she said. "You have risen. I had thought perhaps only a construct."  
"Indeed," Yselda said. "I will not be so easily swindled as a construct. You travelled here with Sir Val of her own free will, and not to deliver her into my hands."  
Val was standing close enough that she could see Esmerelda's throat bob as she swallowed.

"You have committed the crimes of murder, forbidden sorcery, and αἷμα φαγεῖν," Val said, her voice hard and sure.  
Yselda laughed. It was a high, cold laugh that seemed more like thunder, or a cracking whip, than anything that might come from a human's throat. "And where do you think I learned such things, little knight?" she said. "From whose secret library? Who deeded Rosestone and its village to me, to do with it as I would? Who but that same 'king' who sent you to a vampire queen, knowing that whichever of us disposed of the other, he would still reap the benefits? Who but my dear sister!"

Val tightened her jaw. "What benefit could my lord gain from my death?" she asked.  
The same cold laugh struck the air. "He never taught you strategy, then, did he? Rosestone is the last fort before the border. Your king treats with Manzanilla, across the border, while trading with their enemy to the north. As long as they are unaware, he profits richly. If I can hold the border while he and Schneeland raise their armies, he may succeed in claiming Manzanilla for himself. If my... unusual tastes become a public scandal, he will need to remove and replace me, lest the talks fail too soon. Knights, even his foremost knight, are disposable, and it is well known you have a troublesome attachment to plain dealing and the truth. Should scandal about me rise to threaten his greed, and you fail to remove me, you would at least be worth enough to buy him some time."

Val felt a chunk of ice solidify in her core. Yselda was lying -- must be lying, she was talking -- but something in Val recognised that not all the sorceress's words were lies.

"My lady Yselda, what would you of me now?" Esmerelda asked, calm as though she were asking her to pass a plate of oatcakes.  
Yselda smiled. Two sharp points, like cats' teeth, twinkled below her lip. "Let me think," she said. "Yes, yes... You have, after all, brought brave King Karal's champion to me. Come forth then, Lady Esmerelda, and receive my blessing."  
Esmerelda stepped forth. If Val had known Esmerelda as well as she had once thought she had, she would have thought she saw reluctance in the set of Esmerelda's shoulders as she moved.

Then something happened too fast for even Val's fighter-trained eyes to follow. She heard a grunt, but could not swear who had made it. Then Esmerelda was several yards across the room, muttering something, and Val saw a host of glowing dust motes clouding around Yselda.

Yselda stopped. Val, ten years a swordswoman, had seen nothing like it before: the vampire's muscles did not tense to hold her in place and counterbalance her motion. Yselda stilled, rather, as though one moment she'd been a moving woman, and the next a drawing on vellum hanging in the air. Thus stilled and somehow flattened, Yselda then began to wobble, as though someone were shaking the page -- and then her whole form shrunk and conturbed itself into another form entirely, that of a bat. With a pop, the bat burst back into living motion, and flew out of the nearest embrasure like a bolt from a crossbow.

"She's escaped," Val said, turning from Yselda's path to where Esmerelda stood -- no, the other knight had dropped to the floorstones and was hunched over.  
"She'll be no further trouble," Esmerelda said, her voice oddly weak. "She can't turn back from the bat form without more of what changed her -- her own hair, freely given. And the one who had it from her made sure there was no more to use."  
Val stared. "Her own..."  
"Keep up, Val," Esmerelda said, far more brittle than her usual. "She gave me a lock of her hair as a token. I burned it to powder and worked the charm that would change her, when I heard rumour she was bleeding the villagers. And of course I kept count of every hair on her head, I was a sorceress's squire, that was my job! Ugh, help me up, will you?"

Val held out her hand, and pulled Esmerelda to her feet. She took more of Esmerelda's weight than she'd expected her to need; and, looking quizzically at Esmerelda, noticed a dark patch on the velvet cape, covering more of her front than was her usual style. Val reached forward and touched the spot. Esmerelda yelped and glared at Val. Val looked at her hand. "Blood," she said. Gently, she peeled back the stained sable border, and saw a tiny jewelled dagger stuck amid the maille. The rings had parted before it like fleece.  
Esmerelda made a noise of pained annoyance. "What were you expecting, a rain of diamonds? Yes, she stabbed me, it was poisoned, once I heal it I'll have no more sorcery for a day or more without recourse to what you'd term 'dark' methods. If you think we'll have no more trouble before we reach camp, I'll heal it now. Otherwise..." She trailed off.

"Otherwise?" Val said.  
"Well, you could look for another sorceress to heal me," Esmerelda said, looking thoughtful. "Or there might be a good strong shovel around here somewhere. You'd have maybe ten hours before you needed to use it."  
"For pity's sake!" Val said. "Just heal yourself, Esme. I'll keep whatever foes we meet at bay until after you've slept." She was very weary, but happy to keep watch over Esmerelda tonight. She had a lot to think about. To begin with, she had a regicide to plan. And to work out who would join her. In particular, there was one ally very close to hand whom she dearly hoped to win over.  
"If you're sure you can manage," Esmerelda said, looking pleased with herself again at least for the moment. "I can still lift a sword myself, don't forget."

*

"You and Yselda, huh?" Val said, supporting Esmerelda as they slowly picked their way back to the camp they'd made beyond the outskirts of the castle.  
"A long time ago," Esmerelda said. And, mimicking Val's tone, "You and Karal, huh?"  
Val thought of Karal's strong arms on her shoulders as he delivered the Acolada. "It wasn't like that," she said, then fell silent as she considered. She felt again the softness of his chest as he raised her from where she knelt and kissed her full on the lips. "Not exactly," she faltered. "It was a little like that, but it wasn't just that."

A long silence later, Esmerelda returned to her questioning. "And did you know what your so-valiant King Karal had planned?"  
"You know I didn't know," Val said.  
Esmerelda made a gesture, dismissing this. "And did it surprise you?"

Val stopped walking, lifted off her helm, and ran her hand through her hair. It was damp with sweat. She rubbed her neck, and replaced the helm.  
"I was loyal to him," she said. "He was honourable. He was valiant. He was noble. He knighted me." She closed her eyes. "I thought he was honourable." She thought back about Karal's exiled lovers, his surprisingly deep knowledge of forbidden sorcerous arts for a knight who claimed no sorcerous ability -- above all, Karal's sister. "I am not as surprised as I might have expected to be."

Esmerelda put her hands on Val's shoulders and stared her full in the face. Her eyes glittered.

"And after all that, you come to me in with your honour and your valour and your nobility, and you talk to me of trust. It is I, Sir Val, who should not trust you!"  
"But you will," Val said lowly, with more confidence than she felt.  
"Yes, I will," Esmerelda admitted. "In time."


End file.
